It is often valuable to determine the real-time performance characteristics of a network between two network nodes, such as, by way of non-limiting example, one-way delay performance characteristics, round-trip time performance characteristics, loss performance characteristics, jitter performance characteristics, or throughput performance characteristics. Such performance characteristics may be useful, for example, for identifying which communication links, or communication paths, are the cause of issues encountered by users of the network, or may soon be a cause of issues encountered by users of the network.
Often nodes in a network can be configured to implement, in addition to a core functionality implemented by the node, measurement endpoint (MEP) node functionality or measurement intermediate point (MIP) node functionality to aid in determining the performance characteristics of the network. MEP and MIP nodes typically utilize probe packets to determine the performance characteristics of the communication path between such nodes. The precise functionality of such MEP nodes may differ depending on the network protocol used on the network, or the type of network.
Determining where in a network topology to place MEP nodes for a relatively small network may be a relatively simple task that can be accomplished by a human simply looking at a visual representation of the network and manually configuring certain nodes of the network to implement the desired MEP node functionality. However, for relatively large networks that may comprise tens, hundreds, or even thousands of network nodes, and hundreds or thousands of communication links, manual configuration of MEP node placement may result in some communication links not being traversed by any probe packets, and/or may result in more nodes being configured as MEP nodes than necessary, generating unnecessary probe traffic on the network. Moreover, in large networks, nodes may be removed or added relatively frequently, requiring recalculation of MEP node placement. An ideal MEP node configuration would configure the fewest number of MEP nodes necessary to cover each communication link in the network. However, for a relatively large network comprising tens or hundreds of nodes, this determination may be impractical or may be impossible for a human to determine, especially where the network topology is changing relatively frequently.